Week 65: OUI! We HAVE to finish this!

Dear Family and Friends,

:) Um well this has been a very interesting week. Not only was the weather CRAZY (some days we were soaked and some days I came home a little toasted) but so was the work!

I did found out that I am being transfered on Wednesday!! I am going to LILLE!!! That is sooo cool!!!! That is where I did my study abroad 7 years ago! There are two wards because its a big city. I will be serving in Villeneuve D'Ascq.. Ville-nuh-v-dask. Hopefully that helps you know how to pronouce that! Sister Vance served there and so did my future roommate Sister Wynn. They both absolutely LOVED it and I am excited!! I will be serving with a Sister Amy Nelson. She is in her 3rd, so she is just finished with her training. My new address is:

Soeur Kohlert

105, boulevard Montebello D404

59000 Lille

FRANCE

So this week started off with SICKNESS! Not fun. I got food poinsoning for the second time in 2 weeks. I spent all day just trying to not be miserable. Im still suffering from the effects of it (sounds so dramatic when put like that) and its not too fun. But that's allright :)

We got to work lots with Sidonie's sister Assia. She is so adorable and really wants to learn and get to know God. We had set a date with her at one point, but as of now her mom wont let her be baptized. She came to church for all 3 hours and its becoming really good friends with the young woman. We're not sure how things will work out because she comes from a rough family, but she was definitely a miracle for us this week.

Assia and I

We also had some INCREDIBLE lessons with Alphonsine! She is really really progressing. She is reading and coming to church and learning and loving it. There was one point during one of our lessons with her where I got to experience the gift of tongues. The words fell so perfectly from my mouth. It was so soft, yet so powerful and the spirit was unmistakable. Incredible. I felt so blessed to experience that. Last time we talked with her about the atonement, we talked about justice and mercy and read the story with the creditor. If you dont know it I highly recommend it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdc8rKcc4t4. At the end we asked if we could come back sooner than we normally do. With tears in her eyes she said "yes yes, we MUST finish the plan of salvation." She is thinking about a baptismal date. :)

Family Membre'

Well I love you all! I must get going to pack!

Stay amazing!

Love,

Sister Kohlert

Week 64: I guess God prepares His missionaries

Hello family!! 

Its a beautiful day here in France! Like gorgeous. And Im excited to tell you about the wonderful week that I had!

Do you remember Sidonie? Marie's student? Well we were able to teach her again this week and it was again an incredible lesson! She remembered everything that we had taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she brought two of her friends! They are also Marie's students and they are twins. Normally that struggle sitting and listening and school.. but for the whole 45 minutes they were with us they were still and understood everything! They were loving it and they seem interested as well! Sidonie also come to church and brought her 12 year old sister who wants to "learn more about Jesus". We talked to them about baptism and they said that they would do it before the end of the summer! They even started to plan who they would invite! Miracles happening in St. Quentin!!

We taught Alphonsine 2x this week and it was incredible! We decided to go Extremely slowly throught the Plan of Salvation. We talked about each sentence in the brochure through the Fall. It was incredible. We found bible and BOM scriptures to go with each sentence. Her questions were so great and I learned while teaching HER! Her testimony is coming!

I am not sure if I told you, but I have an investigator that was raped earlier this year. In the coming days she has to talk about it in a room with only the violator and the police. Her parents are not allowed to be there at all to support her. She breaks down frequently because she doesn't think that she will be able to do it on her own. Normally, because im a fairly cold hearted person as those who know me know, I would probably be very unsympathetic. Im sure in my head i would be sying things like "just suck it up and tell what happened, you have to do it so just deal with it." Well I had an experince before my mission that softed me enough to be able to really sympathize with Jenny...

I was trying to sell my BYU housing contract so that I could leave on a mission. I had found a UVU student who was willing to buy it and I was so excited.. especially because of the age change, there were tons of girls selling their contracts. Well, even though I had boughten my contract from a UVU student, my landlord would not let me sell it to her because she did not go to BYU. I of course decided to take it to BYU mediation. I was to work the problem out with the Landlord (he would be speaking over the phone). Throughout the mediation I felt completely attacked by my landlord with so many lies. I found my self completely overwhelmed and sobbing to the point where it was difficult for me to think let alone talk! The landlord forbade my parents to speak so that sat at my sides passing me notes of what to say. It was one of the most stressful and painful experiences of my life. I remember saying a prayer with my parents during a 10 minute break.... 

And now, I can only think of my poor investigator. My mediation was over money.. and hers is over something much more precious... And she has to be in the same room as the man that stole this precious thing from her and she CANT have her parents at her side. I cant imagine and I feel so much for her. I pray so strongly that she will be able to find the strength that she needs in order to face what she needs to face. Of course, we told her to pray. Please keep her in your prayers even though I cant tell you her name!!!

Ah well there are so many more miracles from the week! The parents of a non active named Olivia moved in this week. The mom is a member and the dad is not! I dont have time to tell you what happened, but hopefully next week ill be able to tell you! We definitely think he will be baptized with in the next few months! Im just so sad that I won't be here to see all of this!!

This is an elder from Guatamala who was in my old Lux district at Zone Conference

Transfers are next week and I am pretty sure ill be moving. So if you send anything send it to the mission home and not to ST Q!

I love you all,

Sister Kohlert

Week 63: Bonne Fête des Mères

Hi family!! 

Happy mothers day mommy!! I love you so much and it was so wonderful and SO HARD to talk to you all yesterday! I just wanted to jump through the screen to be with you! I miss you all sooo much!!

So I already told you lots about this week yesterday so this email will be short and sweet! I attached a picture of our wonderful cow milking outfit and that fish that we saw being devouered in ways that I didn't know were possible on Saturday by the Niamké family. Ha, I forgot to tell you that just hours before the African FEAST we ate a Peruvian FEAST! They were both so delicious... but my stomach FLIPPED out this morning. It was a small price to pay :)

Lovely Cow Milking Outfit

Whole Fish with Skin and Eyes....Sick!!1

This week was just so wonderful. We saw SO MANY less actives and recent converts this week and we saw miracles with them!! One of them who is the most dearest to our hearts opened up and explained why she hasn't been coming to church. It was such a blessing because she really has a great connection with Sister Kimball. I know that we are placed where we are for a reason! Well to make a long story short... SHE CAME TO CHURCH! We were so happy we couldnt even contain ourselves. I love the mission and I love helping people come closer and learn more of how they can find, or refind, real true happiness in their lives. 

We also made some headway with Alphonsine! We were on an an exchange with the sister training leaders so unfortunately I wasn't able to be at the lesson.. But she came to church with her 7-year-old son Andi.. WHO LOVED IT and she said that if her family doesn't agree with her baptism by July, she will do it anyway!! :) Love her!!

We were also so blessed to have an amazing lesson with Sidonie and Jean-Claude.. One of Marie's students and her cousin. We asked them what they remembered from the last lesson.. and they only receited it perfectly back to us!! They said that they are started to believe more and more in God! Then we taught them the Plan of Salvation... And we got through the whole thing with much detail!! It was incredible! Their questions were sincere and they absolutely loved what we had to teach them about God and His plan! Then at the end we invited them to be baptized if they knew it was true... They said that they had already thought about it and they said YES!!!

I love being a missionary.

Thank you for everything that you have all done for me!! I love you soooo much!!

Sœur Kohlert

Week 62: Happy Baptism... 1 of the 125

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my most amazing sister NICOLE!!! 20 years old... getting old!!! I hope your birthday is wonderful. I love you and miss you!

This week started out crazily with a Paris P-day and a conference the next day in Paris. We talked lots about faith and being obedient so that we can call down the powers of heaven and reach our goal of 125 baptims in three months and before July 1st. As a mission we have 35 as of today so we have lots of work left to do! I am excited to work hard and experince this miracle during my last few months (three as of today to be exact.. Crazy) as a missionary.

Pday -A Kitty Drinking the Milk that We Just Milked

A Yummy Restaurant in Paris

This week we lived a many wonderful miracles and I would just LOVE to share some with you!

Isabela's baptism was beautfiful and so full of the spirit. She was so happy and just kept saying THANK YOU THANK YOU with a huge smile on her face! I love her. She said that the night after her baptism she slept sooo well... that is called spiritual exhaustion that I am learning LOTS about on my mission ha. She had a dream and saw someone dressed in white. She received the Holy Ghost the next day and was promised many blessings, for her and her 2 little children (who just love us by the way).

Isabela's Baptism

We had an amazing lesson with Alphonsine this week on obedience, authority, and eternal life.. random topics I KNOW but they all fit together so well and the spirit was SO STRONG. We were all in tears at different points throughout the lesson. She is still working on the coffee thing. She came to the baptism along with her son Andi and they loved it. Andi said... "Mom if you are baptized I am going to cry." Alphonsine reacted as though the day wouldn't be far off and we took the oppurtunity to explain to Andi that he was feeling the Holy Ghost.

After the baptism we decided to go past a lady that Sister Vance and I had found exactly three weeks earlier before Isabelle's baptism. When we had found her, we tried to figure out where she lived but we weren't sure.. So we fixed a rendez vous at the church and she never came. So SIster Kimball and I decided to go knock the road that we thought she might live on. Well, we were at the stop on our way and the bus driver stopped.. but left as we were walking up to the door... so not cool. So we decided to walk.. i mean she lives on the opposite side of St. Quentin but it's so small that it only took us like a half hour, if that. Well, we knocked two doors and then saw a big apartment building that we thought she might live in. We weren't sure how we'd get in but it just happened to be open... :) We look at the mailboxes and we see a VICTORIA CORBEAU.. that has to be her. We started to walk but the stairs to knock on her door and guess who walks out from another apartment and runs straight into us... Victoria. I am grateful for Heavenly Father and his timing. What a HUGE miracle. If we would have been any earlier or ANY later, we would have completely missed her! SO INCREDIBLE!

So I only have time to share one more miracle with you. On Easter we ate with a member family named the MEMBRés. I love them. We fixed a family missionary plan with them and they were to work with 4 families and we were to all pray every day for them. One of them is named Sophie. Bro Membré set up a lunch with her where he decided to just start asking personal questions. She ended up breaking down in tears and telling him how unhappy she is with life, living alone and just unhappy and she feels like she has missed her chance to live a happy life. She leaves to go smoke and calm down and brother membre is thinking.. "oh no, what have i done... i just made her break down." She comes back and says,

"ya know what I wanna be? I want to become Christian.

I want to have that love and light that the Christians have."

And Heavenly Father opens the door once again.

I know that we are not perfect but that Heavenly Father uses his spirit to turn our efforts to reach out to his children into exactly what is needed.

I love you. I love my mission. Only 13 weeks left and I cant wait to talk to you all on Mother's day!

I LOVE YOU ALL GROS BISOUS!

Week 61:Putting Myself in the Shoes of a Member

Ok so this week was just too cool.. so amazing I love being a missionary. President reminded me today that I only have 14 weeks left.. NOT ENOUGH TIME!!!

 

So let me just tell you a little story... I'll probably have to tell you some more after too because this week was just too great.

 

So, on Monday we went to visit one of our investigators named Isabella. At the end of the very normal rendez vous I asked her if she had any questions...

 

"uh ya, I do have a question. Can I be baptized?"

 

Turns out that the situation with her boyfriend has changed completely and she is totally worthy and ready now to be baptized THIS SATURDAY!!! WHAT??? :) So amazing!

 

Unfortunately the next day my poor companion got sick with the flu and we were stuck inside for a few days... the members came and baby sat and we did splits a few times so that I could get out and do some work :) It was really really nice of them.. We are so spoiled here with our members.

 

Later in the week we got to go teach the friends/family of Alphonsine... their names are Cederic and Charlene/Rita. (the story is actually much more complicated and way cooler than this.. it is actually thanks to a random african man that is up here visting that this is all happening).The dad invited some of the children to join us (which is a miracle in itself). We then had one of the most spiritual lessons ever. Once that Book of Mormon was open the spirit just resonnated through that house. We asked if the dad would pray to know if the restoration and the BOM were true.. his response was "yes I WANT to".... WoW such a miracle for someone who was OPPOSING US and STOPPING Alphonsine from being baptized last week.... Then at the end I asked if we could come back to see them... he said "well, we will be at church at 9 on Sunday..." We hadn't even invited them yet!!! so cool.

 

Okay so i have NO TIME

 

But the family NIAMKé is totally progressing. After having an AWESOME DISCUSSION, the dad of the family who is our hard one was like... "I know that it is true.. I just have to accept it...if I accept it our life is going to be changed".  We did a easter egg hunt after!:)

George and Ewei after our Easter Egg Hunt!

So this week, I WAS SO SCARED, but an opportunity came up to ask Sarah, my foreign exchange student's sister to go to church with my old companion, Sister Vance... I litterally was so scared to ask her.. BUT SHE SAID YES!! AND SHE WENT!!! I jumped up and down and cried when I read the text!! I was so excited!! I was on Sister Vances back like a vulture to see how it went... apparently she really liked it and wants to go to young adult activities :) AH SO COOL!! I want to be a member missionary SOO BAD!!

Sister Vance and Sarah

Ah, there are just so many miracles and stories that I don't have time to tell you all of them!!!!

 

 

I love you I have to go...

 

Big hugs and kisses.... 

MOI

Week 60: Transfer 11... Here I come.

Hey there family and friends!!! I love you all so very much and I miss you!

Happy Easter! I enjoyed so much thinking of Christ and his ressurection this week. It really does mean sooo much for us!

So this week was a crazy missionary week AS NORMAL! Ha. Soeur Vance and I ran around rying to pack, clean and say good bye to everyone! Not to mention that on Monday night we had 2 FHEs! Our ward is doing so well with helping us accomplish our goal as a mission to have a FHE everynight the week of:before easter.

During one of the FHEs we talked aobut Exodus 12 and how easter was instituted in order to help the israelites remember the passover. Sister Vance told me an insight that I really like: The Israelites could have sacrificed the pure first born lamb, but until the blood was put onto the door posts, the sacrifice was done in vain because they wouldnt be protected when the destroying angel passes. Its a great parallel with the atonement. Christ's atonement and sacrifice can't do anything for us until we do something with it, until we apply and use the atonement in our lives. I thought that that was cool.

The second FHE was with Marie and her nonmember friend. She really enjoyed talking with us and she really thinks that her religion really needs to have more of this idea of sharing their knowledge that they have found with others! I really felt the spirit with her and I know that she was touched too! It was a great miracle!

Wednesday was transfers!!! We went into Paris early with all Soeur Vance's suite cases. I cried like a baby on the train and saying goodbye. She was seriously like a sister to me and we were together for SOOO LONG!!! She is going to wonders in Paris I just know.

Saying Goodbye to Sister Vance

 I then received my new AWESOME comp. Her name is Sister Lauren Kimball from Murray Utah. 22 years old and she is so so witty and smart that I just laugh everyday. AND SHE EATS SOO WELL!!! YES ha. I already love her so much and it will just be so great this transfer I just know!

Visite Phantom of the Opera Playhouse while in Paris

My New Companion, Sister Kimball

On Thursday we went to teach Alphonsine, the one who was going to be baptized this week but decided not to because of the lack of family support... We walked inside and guess who was there?? The uncle that thinks we're a sect!!! and his friend!! We were way scared and it was our first lesson together, but we taught them the restoration and they were very open and accepting!! The spirit was soo strong as we were talking aoubt Joseph Smiths vision. Without fail, everytime, the spirit is there as we recount what he said when he saw God and Jesus Christ.... the appointment was even more crazy when we found out that this uncle is the husband of one of our investigators!! Ha crazy!!!! but we were able to set up lessons with both of them for tomorrow!! We'll see how that goes!!

The following days were filled with planning, a many many FHEs and little miracles... definitely not enough time to tell you about all of them!!!

For Easter we were able to go to a member's house, the Membré family, who just spoiled us rotten. They are so great!! They have 4 families that they are sharing the gospel with right now! So we made a plan to make some more steps with each of the those families. I want to be like them in so many ways when I get home. Sister Membré even came to teach the Niamkés with us, the african family.... and she was GREAT! We decided that we wanted to teach them the Exodus story that I just shared with you... AND IT WAS SOO GREAT!!! Ha these little children of ages 2 to 12 understood the story and symbols better than the young adults in the ward did!!! So amazing! Soeur Kimball said she pictured the oldest boy with the priesthood....it will happen one day I JUST KNOW!!!

A time is short and I am so tired I can't look at this screen any longer. I love you all!! Happy Easter. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that He loves us so much.

Bisous (kisses as the french very frequently end things) et Joyeuse Paques!

Soeur Kohlert

Week 59: What a better way to celebrate a baptism than a CARNIVAL!?

So yesterday we arm wrestled to see who would stay in St Quentin since transfers are on wednesday..

Arm Wrestling to See Who Stays

Soeur Vance won so she was to stay .. but... we got SURPISED by a phone call from President last night. Soeur Vance has been called as a Sister Training Leader in Paris! So crazy. She is going back to her same area that she came from!!! like literally!! So cool. I am staying here and my new comp is SIster Kimball :) She lived in the apartment next to me sophomore year in Liberty Square so cool!!!! I am in my villes forever! So far over 5 months in every ville!

This week started out with an AMAZING sisters conference where all of the sisters in the mission got together. Soeur Poznanski did a great job putting it together. She is incredible. I wish you could all get to know her. There was one point where she told us that she wanted to give us each something special... but the mission couldn't just spend money on something like that so she asked the sisters in two stakes if they would be willing to give some old jewelry, bags, and scarves to us.... THERE WAS LOADS of stuff. We all got to choose a few things to take home... What an incredible way to feel the love of the sisters here in France for their sister missionaries. I just cried. I love these people....Miracle!

Jewelry Donated to Missionaries from French Church Members

Sister's Conference

A Group of Future Paris France Missionaries at BYU

The Same Group of Sisters at the Paris France Sister's Conference

The rest of the week was just as hectic as ever. We had a baptism to plan on Saturday and directly afterward would be a huge carnival that Soeur Vance and I, with the help of the DMP and the elders put on. We made garbage bags full of popcorn, at least 100 cookies, and decorations for "la fête foraine". There was fishing, bobbing for apples, beanbag toss, face painting, a photo booth. It was SO INSANE trying to get it all prepared. It was a hit!!!! There were people everywhere and so many members brought their friends!

The night before the festivities as we were walking into our apartment comlex, I saw our neighbor named JP and the idea just came into my head to invite him! So I did! He said that he would come! I thought to myself... sweet... thanks Holy Ghost. Then, on the big day, as we were walking out to go set up for the party, we saw him and his bud, who we had never seen. We waved and said see you tonight!

Well... at the carnival there was a guy talking to the elders. Wondering who it was, we asked! It was JPs FRIEND. JP never showed but he invited his friend, Axel, who came by himself! He started talking to one of the members and was so fascinated and interested by our religion. Axel is starting the lessons with the elders on Tuesday!! MIRACLE!

Carnival

Our other neighbors, Alexandra and Logan, came with the their grandma and friend to the party. As we were answering questions about the church we explained the restoration, baptism and baptism for the dead. Alexandra said that they would like to start Logan on the discussions so that he could be baptized! MIRACLE. Then the grandma said... I WOULD LIKE THAT TOO!! MIRACLE!!!! The grandma was like "Im coming to church tomorrow! I will be there!" By the end of the night Alexandra added, "You know, I was thinking and I would really like to be baptized too. I have been reading that book you gave me and I think it would be good for me too!" MIRACLE.

Isabelle's baptism was just prime. She showed up already to get her hair done in a beautiful white dress. She was so happy. She said that the night before she was so scared and nervous, but she prayed and knew that it was the right. For the first time in her life she believes. MIRACLE. She confied so many wonderful experiences to me as I was doing her hair. She is such a beautiful daughter of God.

Isabelle's Bapstism

The next day she was confirmed a member of Christ's church. Right before the sacrament meeting started she started to cry and ran out of the room.... Everyone was like WHA??? Dont worry... she had just read our testimonies that we had written to her in a little journal that we gave her. She said that she was just so touched by the spirit that she couldn't help but cry. Her blessing was amazing and the testimony that she shared with the words afterwards was even more touching. She is so sensitive to the spirit. Miracle.

I love my mission. It's been an incredible 2.5 transfers with Soeur Vance. When I found out she was leaving I just cried. It's so hard, the mission, but its so beautiful and so worth it. I love it. I'm so sad, so sad to see Sister Vance go. I can't imagine St Quentin with out her, but Im excited to start a new adventure with Sister Kimball on Wednesday.

I love you all so much!

Sister Kohlert